Do you like scary movies?
Forget about anything that Stephen King or Wes Craven or even Eli Roth could dream up. They are amateurs compared to filmmaker Pierre Rehov's latest. I'm talking about stuff that could make burly guys or emergency-room nurses avert their eyes and cover their ears; scenes so chilling that if you see them, you won't just have nightmares; they haunt you while you are awake.
Like all good films, Rehov's Suicide Killers has subtitles, since its Middle Eastern stars and others in the movie speak exotic languages including Arabic, Italian and French. But what it doesn't have is much of a plot. Or a script. Or, come to think of it, actors. Suicide Killers, you see, is a documentary.
While Mark Twain advised us all that truth is stranger than fiction, I'm here to tell you that, King, Craven and Roth be damned: truth is scarier than fiction.
Rehov's masterpiece - his seventh documentary - chronicles the deeds of radical Middle Eastern Muslim men and women who are dedicated to murdering random innocent people - Jews, Christians and even other Muslims - and from where such anti-social behavior emanates.
As bad, if not worse, it also documents a people who celebrate the murder of strangers, and even the deaths of their own children, brothers and friends.
Yes, we are shown repeatedly by Rehov, such people really walk among us, unlike George Romero's zombies.
Most of the movie is set in and around Israel, the tiny nation in the Middle East surrounded by larger, hostile countries and territories that have deadly missiles aimed at her. But rather than focus on these sophisticated weapons systems, Rehov brings his audience the real-life stories of what one Israeli military expert interviewed in the film calls "the real smart bombs": humans (if you can call them that) who strap explosives- and-shrapnel-packed belts to their persons, walk into a crowded bus, restaurant, shopping mall or disco, and gleefully detonate the device, destroying themselves and everyone in proximity, maiming those farther away, emotionally and psychologically scarring all those in the vicinity, and leaving a trail of orphans and grieving relatives and friends of the victims.
Meanwhile, amongst the Arabs, the bomber is honored as a hero or role model and celebrated with posters and the naming of parks, schools, streets and sports teams for them; his or her parents are praised and rewarded, and they are hopeful that their other children will carry out similar attacks - and Allah is thanked.
But Rehov goes beyond this. Mercifully, some bombers are caught by soldiers or security guards before they can detonate. Still others apprehended by the Israelis are the planners or accomplices of the attacks. Rehov goes inside Israeli prisons, interviewing many of them - from a 14-year-old boy seized at a checkpoint to an obviously depraved young woman to a grizzled veteran of the Arab terror war against Israel, delving into the mindset of these would-be murderers. We also hear from psychologists, sociologists and criminologists about what makes these human bombs tick.
Sure, some of these killers and would-be killers believe the lies drilled into their heads that their lives are deplorable because of Israel - a clear effort by Palestinian Arab leaders and clerics, TV hosts and pseudo-academics to misdirect the blowback of their society's own repressive mores and channel it instead to killing Jews. Others are deluded religious fanatics who truly believe that the murder of Jews and Christians ("the infidels") and "impure" Muslims will gain them a special place in Paradise.
But none of these people show any visible sign of depression, despair or hopelessness, which typically are the motivations for people to want to commit suicide. The crime that these people are perpetrating is murder, not suicide. People throughout the world regrettably commit suicide everyday. But they mostly don't seek to take anyone else with them.
Most of the media - accomplices in the propaganda war against the Jewish state of Israel - have taken to labeling these homicides as suicides to elicit sympathy for the killers rather than the victims, and therefore excuse these heinous acts. After watching these monsters and the aftermath of their crimes, most in the audience should clearly see for themselves how wrong that term is.
While there are one or two brief comical moments in the film - illustrations of the absurdity of the culture that produces these killers - the film is truly shocking, as we hear from the terrorists themselves how they cannot wait for the opportunity to kill again, and as we see young children being molded into blood-lusting teens and adults.
As horrifying as this movie is, were I "king-for-a-day" I would compel every American, every European and every Israeli to watch this movie, including schoolchildren, every lawmaker and every member of the media. Meanwhile, Pierre Rehov, an independent filmmaker, is trying to get a distribution deal so that the film can be shown in theaters, rather than only in private gatherings like the one I attended in New York City.
Yes, it is quite scary. But unlike the fictional horror films, covering your eyes will not make the reality go away. It is a problem we must confront.
Forget about anything that Stephen King or Wes Craven or even Eli Roth could dream up. They are amateurs compared to filmmaker Pierre Rehov's latest. I'm talking about stuff that could make burly guys or emergency-room nurses avert their eyes and cover their ears; scenes so chilling that if you see them, you won't just have nightmares; they haunt you while you are awake.
Like all good films, Rehov's Suicide Killers has subtitles, since its Middle Eastern stars and others in the movie speak exotic languages including Arabic, Italian and French. But what it doesn't have is much of a plot. Or a script. Or, come to think of it, actors. Suicide Killers, you see, is a documentary.
While Mark Twain advised us all that truth is stranger than fiction, I'm here to tell you that, King, Craven and Roth be damned: truth is scarier than fiction.
Rehov's masterpiece - his seventh documentary - chronicles the deeds of radical Middle Eastern Muslim men and women who are dedicated to murdering random innocent people - Jews, Christians and even other Muslims - and from where such anti-social behavior emanates.
As bad, if not worse, it also documents a people who celebrate the murder of strangers, and even the deaths of their own children, brothers and friends.
Yes, we are shown repeatedly by Rehov, such people really walk among us, unlike George Romero's zombies.
Most of the movie is set in and around Israel, the tiny nation in the Middle East surrounded by larger, hostile countries and territories that have deadly missiles aimed at her. But rather than focus on these sophisticated weapons systems, Rehov brings his audience the real-life stories of what one Israeli military expert interviewed in the film calls "the real smart bombs": humans (if you can call them that) who strap explosives- and-shrapnel-packed belts to their persons, walk into a crowded bus, restaurant, shopping mall or disco, and gleefully detonate the device, destroying themselves and everyone in proximity, maiming those farther away, emotionally and psychologically scarring all those in the vicinity, and leaving a trail of orphans and grieving relatives and friends of the victims.
Meanwhile, amongst the Arabs, the bomber is honored as a hero or role model and celebrated with posters and the naming of parks, schools, streets and sports teams for them; his or her parents are praised and rewarded, and they are hopeful that their other children will carry out similar attacks - and Allah is thanked.
But Rehov goes beyond this. Mercifully, some bombers are caught by soldiers or security guards before they can detonate. Still others apprehended by the Israelis are the planners or accomplices of the attacks. Rehov goes inside Israeli prisons, interviewing many of them - from a 14-year-old boy seized at a checkpoint to an obviously depraved young woman to a grizzled veteran of the Arab terror war against Israel, delving into the mindset of these would-be murderers. We also hear from psychologists, sociologists and criminologists about what makes these human bombs tick.
Sure, some of these killers and would-be killers believe the lies drilled into their heads that their lives are deplorable because of Israel - a clear effort by Palestinian Arab leaders and clerics, TV hosts and pseudo-academics to misdirect the blowback of their society's own repressive mores and channel it instead to killing Jews. Others are deluded religious fanatics who truly believe that the murder of Jews and Christians ("the infidels") and "impure" Muslims will gain them a special place in Paradise.
But none of these people show any visible sign of depression, despair or hopelessness, which typically are the motivations for people to want to commit suicide. The crime that these people are perpetrating is murder, not suicide. People throughout the world regrettably commit suicide everyday. But they mostly don't seek to take anyone else with them.
Most of the media - accomplices in the propaganda war against the Jewish state of Israel - have taken to labeling these homicides as suicides to elicit sympathy for the killers rather than the victims, and therefore excuse these heinous acts. After watching these monsters and the aftermath of their crimes, most in the audience should clearly see for themselves how wrong that term is.
While there are one or two brief comical moments in the film - illustrations of the absurdity of the culture that produces these killers - the film is truly shocking, as we hear from the terrorists themselves how they cannot wait for the opportunity to kill again, and as we see young children being molded into blood-lusting teens and adults.
As horrifying as this movie is, were I "king-for-a-day" I would compel every American, every European and every Israeli to watch this movie, including schoolchildren, every lawmaker and every member of the media. Meanwhile, Pierre Rehov, an independent filmmaker, is trying to get a distribution deal so that the film can be shown in theaters, rather than only in private gatherings like the one I attended in New York City.
Yes, it is quite scary. But unlike the fictional horror films, covering your eyes will not make the reality go away. It is a problem we must confront.